Official Puts Cost of Rebuilding World Trade Center Site at $10 Billion, but That Could Rise

By EDWARD WYATT

Published: May 16, 2003

Rebuilding the World Trade Center site will cost roughly $10 billion, with two-thirds of that paying for the office, cultural and transportation buildings envisioned in the architect Daniel Libeskind's design, a top rebuilding official said yesterday.

The rest of the money will be for architectural and engineering fees, insurance, administration costs and legal fees and other costs, according to the official, Andrew Winters.

After a board meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Mr. Winters, who succeeded Alexander Garvin as the agency's director for planning, design and development, told reporters that his estimate is conservative. It is based on an assumed construction cost of $350 per square foot for the 8 million to 10 million square feet of office space that would be rebuilt on the trade center site, he said.

Larry A. Silverstein, the developer who is planning to rebuild 7 World Trade Center, a tower that collapsed on the afternoon of the trade center attack, said in a statement yesterday that he estimated that 7 World Trade would cost about $400 a square foot to build. Developers say that is consistent with current construction costs in midtown Manhattan.

Mr. Winters's estimate of the overall cost of the trade center project is the first to be made public since Mr. Libeskind's design was chosen for the rebuilding.

Federal funds approved by Congress and President Bush to help New York recover from the attack and insurance payments would pay for most of the rebuilding.

Officials have said, however, that some private money will be required, most likely for the completion of some of the cultural buildings planned for the site and for the memorial to victims of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Rebuilding officials also said yesterday that more than 5,000 people and groups have registered to take part in the competition to design a memorial to the victims.

Those registered include people from 71 countries, all 50 states, the District of Columbia and most United States territories, said Anita Contini, a vice president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing the memorial competition.

The registration deadline is May 29. Only registered participants will be allowed to submit designs, which will be accepted from June 9 through June 30. Finalists will be selected in September, and a winner will be chosen in October.

The development corporation will conduct a public forum to let members of the jury that will select the winner hear thoughts on what the winning design should contain. The forum is to be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28, at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan.

The development corporation also approved nearly $1 billion in new spending on projects to help Lower Manhattan recover from the terrorist attack, including $750 million to help repair telephone and utilities networks downtown and $150 million for short-term projects to make Lower Manhattan more livable, including a new pedestrian bridge over West Street and more attractive security barriers in the financial district.

The approval also includes $75 million to pay for additional grants to small businesses in Lower Manhattan as part of the Business Recovery Grant program. The program, administered by the Empire State Development Corporation, had previously been authorized to spend $481 million on the grants, but the approved grants far exceeded that amount.